Tuesday, 31 July 2012

I watched the penultimate episode of the second series last night and was struck by just how great this show has become. Last week saw one major character go - traumatically - and this week saw another. Not only that, but at the end we could see just what an apocalyptic episode the series finale is going to be next week! That is definitely going to be an edge of seater!

Monday, 30 July 2012

Finally got round to seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for the first time this weekend. I must admit straight away that I am a traditionalist when it comes to Holmes and prefer him played straight, as per the brilliant TV series starring Jeremy Brett. I do, however, like most of the 1930s/40s Basil Rathbone interpretations, though these do play havoc at times with both period and character, particularly poor Watson.

I also like Robert Downey Jnr as an actor.

(Spoiler Alert)

Yet, despite some moments that truly work, overwhole this film really doesn't. Perhaps it's the all too frequent bursts of frenetic action that punctuate it. These are so far over the top they are almost cartoonish. And there are so many things that are just plain daft, like Holmes' sudden passion for camouflaging himself. And why on earth did we have to have the ridiculous spectacle of Stephen Fry as Mycroft wandering around his stately home in the nude? What was that all about? I'm mystified. I honestly am.

The climax with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls was well done and, as Holmes forces them both over to tumble to their deaths, there was, for a moment, a genuine feeling of poignancy. A poignancy that was ended too abruptly a short time later with Holmes' reappearance, camouflaged, at the end, which was so trite, whimsical and downright silly that, for me at least, it gave a hollow ring to the entire film.

Robert Downey Jnr's interpretation of Holmes may suit some people, but I feel it's too carefree and silly and lacks any conviction. Perhaps, at the end of the day, I can only blame its director, Guy Ritchie, who seems neither to care nor have any real feeling for Doyle's character, because this is one of the worst interpretations of Holmes I have ever seen.

Pleased to see that the Ninth Black Book of Horror from Mortbury Press, edited by Charles Black,
is to be launched at FantasyCon this September. Unfortunately I won't
be able to attend but I hope the launch goes well. Stories in it by
Simon Bestwick, Kate Farrell, Paul Finch, John Forth, Tom Johnstone, Thana Niveau, Marion Pitman, John Llewellyn Probert, David A. Riley, Anna Taborska and David Williamson. I can't believe it's reached the 9th volume already!

Friday, 20 July 2012

Dave Sutton is reprinting one of my earliest short stories, The Farmhouse later this year in the retitled New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural, Horror! Under the Tombstone. What I didn't know till today is that this story was translated into Italian and published there in two anthologies in 1989 and 1994 as La fattoria.

It looks as if there will be another Halifax Ghost Story Festival this year, the third in succession, which is great news after just how good the earlier ones were.

Not much news yet about actual events at the Festival, but I shall try to keep anyone looking here posted on developments. Alternatively, you can check out with this facebook link: Halifax Ghost Story Festival.